PAS hosted two events on conservation covenants for local authorities in June 2022. Defra provided an overview of conservation covenants, whilst Natural England ran through work they are undertaking to become a 'responsible body'. Slides and a recording are available on this page.
June 2022
Conservation covenants are a new type of voluntary but legally binding agreement enabled through the Environment Act. They are designed to secure the long-term conservation of the natural or heritage features of the land covered by the agreement.
These two sessions covered what conservation covenants are, how they will work and the roles a local authority can have in relation to these agreements. There were presentations from Defra and Natural England followed by questions and answers.
You can access the slides and recording of the PAS-hosted session on 9 June 2022 here. We will also be producing a set of Frequently Asked Questions on conservation covenants based on these and other meetings.
Slide pack on conservation covenants for local authorities, 9 June 2022
Recording of conservation covenants session for local authorities, 9 June 2022
Local authority views
As part of both events, we used online polling to ask participants whether they thought their authority would enter into a conservation covenant agreement (answers based on % of those responding).
We also asked how participants thought conservation covenant agreements would be used by their authority, giving a range of environmental applications that could potentially benefit from the new agreements (answers based on % of those responding).
